Colours in Disguise Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red rag

Today, when we use the term "Red rag at a bull" or "Red rag to a bull", it means to infuriate someone in some manner, as in waving a matador's red cloak before a poor bull being mercilessly baited. However, a red rag used in conversation in this way was nothing to do with bullfights when it first began being used, but was a reference to chattering non-stop to someone instead. "Red rag" was a rather unrefined term that was used for the tongue. Earliest use of this term date back to at least 1605. Still being used in 1785, it appears in a work by one Francis Grose, called "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue".

In this, he tells us that a common term for telling people to shut up was "Shut your potatoe (sic) trap and give your red rag a holiday".

Answer: Brown berry

"As brown as a berry" is usually a description applied to someone who is very suntanned. It can of course also apply to animals or objects as well. Believe it or not, the term was being used way back in Chaucer's day. This tubby little poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) who gave us many early written works, including the famous "Canterbury Tales", is looked upon today as the father of English literature (1343-1400). Have you ever tried to read that work? It's woefully difficult. We had to study it at university. In one section of the work, "The Monk's Tale", with spelling intact, he describes the monk and his horse as follows:

"He was a lord full fat and in good point;
His eyen stepe and rolling in his head
That stemed as a fornice of a led;
His botes souple, his hors in gret estat,
Now certainly he was a sayre prelat.
He was not pale as a forpined gost;
A fat swan loved he best of any rost;
His palfrey was as broune as is a bery".

Answer: Green with envy

To be "Green with envy" is to be consumed by jealousy. Green is a colour that has been associated with envy for some time, but the exact origins of the phrase are difficult to find. One reference puts its origins in the United States where it was applied to people who were envious of the wealthy because they had more "greenbacks" than they had. Greenbacks was the name given to money issued during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

It was used for many years after that to refer to paper dollars, but today less so.

Another reference takes us back to the days of Ancient Greece at a time when the emotion of jealousy was linked with the body's production of bile, which was said to give a greenish tinge to the complexion.

Answer: In the pink

"In the pink" is a term that generally refers to one's health, but can be applied to other concepts as well. The origin of this expression has nothing to do with nice rosy cheeks however. Dating back to the 16th century where it can be found first recorded, the term meant "the very pinnacle of something", and that pretty well still sums it up today.

A reference to the expression can be seen in Shakespeare's 1597 play "Romeo and Juliet", in which Mercurio states that "Why, I am in the very pinke of curtesie". By 1837, it was used to describe the utmost in any concept, good OR bad.

The height of fashion, for example was described as "The very pink of the mode". In the private letters of Dickens, though, he applies the term to describe one part of a locality as "the very pink of hideousness and squalid misery".

Answer: Blue moon

Any rare occurrence has, over time, come to be described as happening "Once in a blue moon". That isn't the precise origin of the saying however, and instead, dating back to Medieval England, a blue moon was associated with the outright impossible. This was because of the scientific announcement made at the time that the moon was blue at times - and much was the indignation and disbelief this evoked. John Frith in his 1529 "A pistle to the christen reader", for example, says sarcastically that men are now blue and that the moon will be soon be comprised of "grene chese" as well.

The amusing thing is that the moon does indeed to be a very, very pale blue once in a while. This is the result of larger volcanic dust particles appearing in the atmosphere. Associating the saying "Once in a blue moon" with the *possibility* of something rare taking place then has nothing to do with any volcanic activity.

Instead it dates back to terms given to the moons during the various seasons that governed the life of early men. Terms such as harvest moon, hunter's moon and so on.

A "blue moon" was the name given to the third moon in any normal seasonal period of three months when a fourth moon appeared in the skies. Why the third moon, instead of the fourth, was called a blue moon in unknown. However, this event takes place approximately every three years. Today the term has evolved further, and a little incorrectly, to simply mean any second moon appearing in a calendar month instead. Meanwhile, our beautiful old moon, completely ignoring all the nonsensical debate raging below about its colour, continues to shine serenely as it always has done.

Answer: The Yellow Peril

"The Yellow Peril" was an insulting term, thankfully now no longer in use, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time in history, many people in the westernised world held a genuine fear that their societies would be overcome and engulfed by swarms of marauding, bloodthirsty Asians.

This very racist term was provoked for the most part by a complete lack of understanding and knowledge of the Eastern side of the globe and of those Asian societies that comprised same. The focus at the time was on Japan, and this following comment in the Ohio paper, "The Sandusky Register" in June of 1895 is indicative of the state of mind of the west: "The 'yellow peril' is more threatening than ever. Japan has made in a few years as much progress as other nations have made in centuries." These flames and fear and racism were particularly to be found in Germany at the time, with its Kaiser Wilhelm II vigorously opposed to both Japan and China. Add to this the negative portrayals of Asian people in books and films at the time as well - and you have a fully fledged example of the propaganda machine at work on the minds of the populace.

Answer: Shrinking violet

A "shrinking violet" is a person who is shy and hesitant about pushing his or herself forward in any situation. This origin of the saying is the little flower itself and not any known person. Nor does the term mean, when used today, that the person in reference is becoming smaller and smaller in size, but one who tries instead to withdraw into the background whenever possible. For a person such as this, being centre stage and the focus of all attention is somewhat akin to torture. An early example of the use of this expression can be found in a Pennsylvania newspaper, "The Titusville Herald" in late 1870.

It refers to a bombastic business man, one William Tweed who was suspected, although unproven at the time, to have filched large sums of money from public funds.

The heavily sarcastic article has "...deputations of the tax payers of New York waiting upon Mr. Tweed with the title-deeds of their mansions and the shrinking violet Tweed begging them to pardon his rosy blushes...". Hilarious!

Answer: Black sheep

"The black sheep of the family" means one member of an otherwise fine and upstanding family group leads a life that is extremely dubious. He's a loser, a no-hoper, a criminal even, and all his actions reflect very badly on the sterling achievements of the rest of the family members.

There are three possible origins of this saying. The first is that black has always been looked upon as an undesirable colour when associated with many things in English history. Black moods, black looks, black days, for example, are all negative concepts.

The second given origin is that the wool of black sheep was harder to sell than the wool of white sheep. The wool didn't dye well at all, and so it was worth less on the market. The third suspect is found in the first edition of the Bible that was printed in English. That was in 1535 by one Myles Coverdale.

The King James version of Genesis 30:32 today states "I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats".

The 1535 English version however has this written as "...All blacke shepe amonge the lambes...". Poor little unwanted and unloved baa-baas.

Answer: A bolt

"A bolt from the blue" is used to describe any experience that is completely unexpected and unforeseen. It has come out of thin air. The term has been around for some time, but not as far back as other expressions. An early written record can be found in Thomas Carlyle's 1837 "The French Revolution".

In this he states "Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the Blue, has hit strange victims". That was a sad old time in the history of mankind, but one that was bound to happen, sooner or later.

Answer: Painting the town red

"Painting the town red" means that someone or some people are either engaging in, or about to engage in, a wonderfully riotous time in which they rampage happily and harmlessly, and usually drunkenly, all over the city. Those high spirits, however, can degenerate into rowdy and destructive behaviour more often than not. Popular opinion has the origin of this expression dating back to 1837 when the Marquis of Waterford and his group of intoxicated friends went too far in Melton Mowbray, a town in Leicestershire, England - and the silly dills actually did paint many of the town's buildings a bright and glaring red.